BellView Crash 7 years report not yet Ready says AIB Chief

THE National Assembly Joint Committee on Aviation investigating the Dana plane crash was told, yesterday, that seven years after the Bellview plane crash where 117 perished, investigations were yet to be concluded.

Disclosing this when he appeared before the committee at its second day public hearing, yesterday, Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer, CEO,  Accident Investigation Bureau, AIB, Captain Yusuf Lawal, told the committee members that investigations into the ADC crash which claimed the life of the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Maccido, his son and other victims had also not been concluded.

The Senate and the House of Representatives Committees on Aviation are presently carrying out a four-day investigation into the Dana air crash in Lagos and cargo plane that crashed in Ghana.

Lawal who also revealed that investigations into the Bellview crash were still on-going, stressed that the black box of the flight was never recovered from the crash site, just as he said the 2005 report on the Sosoliso air crash was released in 2006.

The AIB boss who disclosed that despite the inability of the bureau to analyse the black box, qualified staff of the bureau accompanied the box to the United States to avoid any interference, adding that if Nigeria as a country must set up a flight recorder laboratory popularly called the black box, a total of $5.6 million would be required.